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It's stated in the book The Gildar Rift that if a marine has his Gene Seed removed while still alive, he will begin shutting down and the level of disgrace would be so great that his buddies would probably put him down out of pity and disgust but in the Word Bearer book Dark Disciple it says that Marduk has had his removed because its matured and he no longer needs it, so it gets taken out in order to be implanted into a newbie. Can anyone clarify for me just how vital is this thing really is? Sorry if grammer or punctuation is off, I'm doing this on my phone and it's really fiddlely. CHEERS FOLKS

Muhr wrote:It's stated in the book The Gildar Rift that if a marine has his Gene Seed removed while still alive, he will begin shutting down and the level of disgrace would be so great that his buddies would probably put him down out of pity and disgust but in the Word Bearer book Dark Disciple it says that Marduk has had his removed because its matured and he no longer needs it, so it gets taken out in order to be implanted into a newbie. Can anyone clarify for me just how vital is this thing really is? Sorry if grammer or punctuation is off, I'm doing this on my phone and it's really fiddlely. CHEERS FOLKS

Well if I recall correctly each space marine is given one geneseed and another grows, so if both were removed that would symbolise being stripped of Astartes status, wherein harvesting the spare is probably fairly common.

It sounds like it's not Vital to living or being supper strong and what not, but that having it removed well alive is a real insult. You no longer carry the future of the chapter. That whould be very depressing for a SM.

Gene Seed is vital to the Chapter, not the individual marine. Having it removed while still living is not an insult, and has no negative effects.

A marine has two progenid organs that are the gene seed. When they are mature, they can be either removed, or left in until death.

The fluff states that the Progenoids cultivated within the body of Space Marines is the only way that Chapters have of making more Space Marines. Removing the extra matured set while the Marine still lives only makes sense as it helps offset the chance that the Marine's body will be lost or catastrophically damaged, taking both sets with it.

They are implanted with gene-seed, and once both their seeds are matured, and they are fully developed, they no longer need seed, and they're both taken out.

How it works is, you harvest the Geneseed from a Marine.

Each marine has 2 progenoids,

A single progenoid is harvested and it creates all of the Organs needed to make a new space marine, including 2 new progenoids which grow to maturity while the marine is finishing his transformation. The chest one matures about the same time as he becomes a full marine and recieves the Black Carapace, the second takes several more years to grow.


The fluff seems to support at least the chest progenoid being removed while the marine is still alive. The one in the neck seems to be left in untill death, but the evidence is inconclusive.


So, assuming both a marine's progenoids are harvested, a single marine can create 2 more. 1 while he is alive and 1 more upon death. These 2 new marines will in turn create 4 new marines and so on.

Grey Templar wrote:How it works is, you harvest the Geneseed from a Marine.

Each marine has 2 progenoids,

A single progenoid is harvested and it creates all of the Organs needed to make a new space marine, including 2 new progenoids which grow to maturity while the marine is finishing his transformation. The chest one matures about the same time as he becomes a full marine and recieves the Black Carapace, the second takes several more years to grow.


The fluff seems to support at least the chest progenoid being removed while the marine is still alive. The one in the neck seems to be left in untill death, but the evidence is inconclusive.


So, assuming both a marine's progenoids are harvested, a single marine can create 2 more. 1 while he is alive and 1 more upon death. These 2 new marines will in turn create 4 new marines and so on.

Yeppers the OP has Geneseed and Progenoids confused.

A Space Marine is implanted with 19 different Geneseed which are organs designed to interact with the human body and 'create' a Space Marine. Phase 18 is the Progenoids -- There are two of these glands, one situated into the neck.the other deep within the chest cavity. These glands are important to the survival of the Marine's Chapter. Each organ grows within the marine, absorbing hormonal stimuli and genetic material from the other implants. After 5 years the neck gland is mature and ready for removal. After 10 years the chest gland becomes mature and is also ready for removal. A gland may be removed anytime after it had matured. These glands represent a chapters only source of gene-seed. When mature, each gland contains a single gene-seed corresponding to each zygote implanted into the recipient marine. Once removed by surgery, the progenoid must be carefully prepared, its individual gene-seeds checked for mutation and sound geneseeds stored. Gene-seed can be stored indefinitely under suitable conditions. -- Warhammer 40k compendium p9

Various authors have also gotten the terminology confused over the years. Just remember Gene-seed are the 19 implants which are inside the marines. They are refered to as Zygotes until they are implanted into a marine. Progenoids are a specific Geneseed, they are the ones that allow a marine chapter to make new marines. They can also be ruined by radiation and other various factors which is the reasion they have two of them so even if one is damaged they can make another marine from the second one.

Yes and No.

Geneseed refers to the actual genetic makeup of a space marine or a chapter, not specifically the organs themselves. The organs are what the geneseed creates and are directly tied to it, but they arn't the actual Geneseed itself.

The Progenoids are the organs that store/create the geneseed.

From The Rites of Initiation

Gene-seed and Zygotes
There are nineteen varieties of gene-seed corresponding to the nineteen different superhuman organs that are surgically implanted into a Space Marine

Phase 18 - Progenoids
These glands are important to the survival of the Marine's Chapter. Each organ grows within the Marine, absorbing hormonal stimuli and genetic material from the other implants. After five years, the neck gland is mature and ready for removal. After ten years, the chest gland becomes mature and is also ready for removal. A gland may be removed any time after it has matured. These glands represent a Chapter's only source of gene-seed.

Reproducing Zygotes
Gene-seed can only be obtained by removing one or both progenoid organs from a living (or very recently deceased) Marine.

The whole purpose of the progenoid organ is to provide gene-seed to enable the Chapter to continue.

Without gene-seed, a Chapter has no future. The extinction of a type of gene-seed means that a zygote has been lost forever. The extinction of a Phase 18 or 19 gene-seed would effectively mean an end to a Chapter.

tl;dr

Ok, thanks for the illumination guy's.